When I first started this blog, the challenge was to write a post a day.

Given the last few months, I've failed that. It seems that it's difficult to allocate the hour a day necessary (yep, it takes about an hour for a daily post. Doesn't look like that much work, does it?), when you're working 4-5 nights a week, have something that occasionally resembles a relationship, and the odd additional project.

Speaking of which, I finally finished and "released" my first karaoke mash-up track yesterday. Well, I suppose you could say it's in beta - I've sent it to both Adrian and DJ Fnord, to see what they think.

It only took me two and a half weeks.

By contrast, Fnord and co. produced roughly 27 additional mashups in the 15 days preceding their first show at Bootie. I gather they had help, but still, this wasn't so much hitting the ground running on my part as hitting the ground.

I actually initially sent out the track on Thursday - then tried singing it at Thursday's show. The timing was so far off it was embarrassing.

That track hasn't been the only thing I've been doing - just close enough.

As far as the week is concerned, well...

Last Sunday, a large part of the day was spent hanging out with raven2000. Then there was one of those karaoke show thingies, which was reasonably well-attended for a Sunday - 15 singers and 8 rotations.

The Chris, megnc86, and Sandra trio were there, looking cute. I suspect I may see more of that, now that Chris & Megan live in Mountain View.

More of the day on Monday was spent hanging out with Raven (it's like there's a trend of something), then that night's show was a little less busy than Sunday (13 singers, and 11 rotations), but slightly more profitable (we were 14% over target for the weekend). Actually, it was considerably more profitable for me, because tips were quite nice.

Many of the same people, but also rare appearances by Bekki and Honey, a new couple (Joey and Tim. Tim's a promoter, apparently, and until recently worked at the Fahrenheit), and Michelle, who was crossing over from the Dev/Effie's world into the KoC one.

Actually, I gather she used to sneak into the KoC when she was underage, but that was rather before its present incarnation.

During the day Monday, I finally got in touch with Dianah from the Shamrock Pub, and arranged to start the next evening.

I'm not really sure what I did during the day Tuesday. I suspect it might have had something to do with the mashup track. Or simply panicking about Tuesday night.

Being a performer and an introvert is an interesting combination.

The Shamrock was an experience. First of all, it's about a block and a half from where turn2nz and Stuart used to live - I've walked past it multiple times. Hell, I've eaten at the Thai Place next door (yes, that is its name) quite a bit. I've even been to the liquor store on the other side on several occasions.

Despite the name, the most Irish thing about the place is the occasional green motif. Otherwise it is, as Dianah described it, a dive bar. A relatively clean, well-lit dive bar in decent condition, but a dive bar nonetheless.

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have the owner and/or manager of a dive bar admit to the fact.

Given the day's worth of advertisement, the rotation was kinda rocky. I sang 21 times before the end of the night, and for 4 of those 21 times, I was the only singer. Gotta keep what little momentum ya have goin', ya know?

For the first half of the night, my mainstay was Danny, a short little guy of indeterminate background and indefinable age, there with his friend(?) Edgar (they seemed close). He mostly sang standards, in an excellent voice.

When he left (around 11:30pm, I think), I sorta thought I might have to pack up, but some actual karaoke people (Jeremy, Kevin, Ryan, and Krista) showed up, and kept things going until we closed at 1:40am.

That was the normal part of the evening. Well, that and the relatively decrepit guy whose name I never caught (he's in the chart as "guy?"), that liked rock and offered me his beer.

Then there was the Coyote Ugly aspect. When I walked in I noticed that the bartender (Megan) was rather much on the hot side. Far from unusual. And one of the patrons was this smokin' hot redhead (Mary). Not that unusual, either.

A bit after I started, this also very hot asian girl (I think Chinese background) put in a song. That, as it turned out, was Dianah. Then she took off her jacket, and was wearing this extremely distracting backless top.

Then she and Mary started dancing together. And grinding on each other.

There were a few times I had a very difficult time focusing on my work. It was awful.

The cherry on top was when Megan, Mary, and Dianah sang Fuck Her Gently...

I think I'm going to like this place - especially since my fraction of the gross was actually a nice chunk of change. Though I've never seen so many cans of Pabst...

On the way back, I made the mistake of going to a non-April Denny's. It was sad. In my favor, I tried going to a Carrow's, but it turned out to not be a 24-hour one.

I'm, again, not totally sure what I did during the day on Wednesday, though I believe there was some more hanging out with Raven.

The Wednesday show was quite busy, though I can't say I made a huge amount of money off the bar. On the other hand, Matthew kept throwing twenties in my tip jar so his friend Patricia could get extra songs. I did fine.

I had 27 singers, and a number of rotations that doesn't really count, for reasons I won't get into.

Among the various attendees was Scot Free, who saw me as I was setting up. He works at the Stud down the street (big surprise), and talked about maybe having me play there.

There was jannypanlj, and Oni, and Maria, and Tim. Also Richard T, who I don't believe has been to one of my City shows before. No-one from the J/G group though - again.

There was also Lab and "Pain" (he normally goes by "T." Oy). T is apparently one of the organizers for the Sunday show, and complained to me bitterly that this karaoke thing is addictive.

Heh heh heh.

Lab is not only a gorgeous girl, but also has a beautiful voice. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing more of her.

We also had Jules, who was one of my first singers over at Julie's.

A very, very good time. I'm just not used to getting the day menu at Denny's.

Thursday, there was more of that "hanging out with Raven" thing, and then the Thursday show.

A nice little evening. 33 singers, and 6 rotations - there was a fair amount of turnover. The bar did quite decently. Kellen came in again, in one of her usual cute little outfits. There was also some Mandi and Hex.

Joey and Tim came back, there was some Dean (a blast from the past), little Sarah brought in quite a group, including Chris C. - and we all got Dave to sing.

Kitty, who'd been in before (I think with David T), brought her friend Addy. They had to leave shortly because Addy didn't have ID...

Despite the crowd, it was a fairly laid-back night. There was, again, a fair amount of turnover, though fortunately it didn't seem like people were leaving upset. They'd just come in, stay for a couple of hours, then take off - only to be replaced by others.

Hell, the last rotation had 13 people in it, and I still was able to fit in a couple ("Bentley") that put in their song at 1:30am.

Friday was almost mellow. I caught up a bit on sleep, did some more work on the track, and visited my parents.

Saturday I finally finished the damn track (which included multiple sessions of standing in my room and singing to it, just to make sure the timing felt OK), and then decided to catch up on a few things.

So some of the pile of bills I've been ignoring have been paid, my bedsheets have been washed (I don't wanna think about how long it's been), including a trip around the corner to the laundromat to do my bedspread, three loads of clothes have been washed, folded, and put away, and the frikkin' garbage has been taken out.

Part of that was prompted by the fact that electrichobbit spent the night last night. I figured I might as well make the place a tad less squalid.

Which also meant I got to do some hanging out with the Mark. This is a good thing.

I've also started on the next mashup track. For this one, I've got a matching instrumental and vocal track, so it should be quite a bit easier.

So far, all I've done is spend several hours on the splash page, 'cause I'm a dork like that. Well, I'm especially a dork because it's a bit of doubly referential humor that I doubt anyone will catch.

Some sleep, and then today has so far been spent working on this little tome. I haven't really had enough sleep, but I should be cleaned and dressed relatively shortly - the idea is to have dinner with kshandra before the show.